President Obama pledges funding to clear unexploded U.S. bombs in Laos

VIENTIANE, Laos -- Phong Manithong was maimed and blinded at just 16 years
old. A friend gave him what looked like a toy ball, but it was a bomb that
suddenly exploded in his hands.

Phong Manithong, left, was maimed and blinded by an unexploded American bomb
CBS News

“I feel lots of pain on my body and I feel like I
was in fire,” Manithong said.

His devastating injuries came from American munitions
dropped more than 40 years ago. During the war in neighboring Vietnam, U.S.
warplanes unleashed 270 million cluster bombs on Laos to cut off enemy supply
lines.

Eighty million of them did not explode, resulting in more
than 20,000 casualties since the war ended.

On Wednesday, President Obama promised $90 million to
help clear the ordinance from the country.

“We see the victims of bombs that were dropped
because of decisions made half a century ago and we are reminded that wars
always carry tremendous costs,” Obama said while surrounded
by prosthetic limbs designed for the injured.